Tag Archives: assaying

MSALABS to drive productivity improvements at Nevada Gold Mines complex with new contract

MSALABS, a global provider of geochemical laboratory services for the exploration and mining sectors, has cemented a major, five-year new contract with Nevada Gold Mines in the US that will see the majority-owned subsidiary of Capital operate a state-of-the-art hybrid laboratory on the gold miner’s behalf. The lab will incorporate both Chrysos PhotonAssay™ technology and traditional fire assay methods as well as full multi-element assaying capabilities.

This represents the largest contract award in MSALABS’s history, anticipated to generate some $140 million over the five-year term, with annual revenues of circa-$30 million once fully operational. Capital expenditure for the project is expected of circa-$7 million in 2024.

Phase one of the project will commence towards the end of the first half of 2024 with the commissioning of two Chrysos PhotonAssay units and a capacity of 80,000 samples per month. Phase two will commence at the end of 2024 with the third Chrysos PhotonAssay unit along with the full geochemical laboratory bringing capacity to 120,000 samples per month as well as associated multi-element testing.

The Nevada Gold Mines contracts represents a significant beachhead for MSA in the US market, entrenching the company’s presence in the Americas, both operationally given the full suite of services across preparation, PhotonAssay, fire assay and multi-element chemistry at a major operation, and also geographically, expanding its footprint in the Americas from its multiple laboratories across Canada and South America, it said.

It also comes alongside Capital’s recently-awarded drilling contract at NGM, which encompasses a wide array of drilling services including underground reverse circulation and diamond, both surface and underground, in addition to Capital announcing former BME and Orica team member Aaron Austin as CEO of the Americas.

Stuart Thomson, MSALABS CEO, said of this contract award: “We are thrilled to have been awarded this material contract, adding to our existing PhotonAssay contracts with Barrick at Bulyanhulu and Kibali. This contract reflects not only the proven advantages of the innovative PhotonAssay technology but also the trusted capabilities of MSALABS across traditional fire assay and multi-element analysis.

“This state-of-the-art hybrid laboratory will be the first of its kind in the USA and, with MSALABS’ holistic approach to laboratory design, will help drive productivity improvements to the Nevada Gold Mines complex.

“These three new PhotonAssay units mark the start of a broader partnership agreement with Barrick Gold, with trials underway for a possible 10 further PhotonAssay units by the end of 2025 across multiple of Barrick’s other operations.”

Britannia Mining Sciences bolsters PhotonAssay lease order

Chrysos Corporation Limited says it has signed 10 new PhotonAssay™ lease agreements with existing customer Britannia Mining Solutions (BMS), bringing Chrysos’ total number of deployed or contractually-committed units to 48.

The combined initial five-year terms of the 10 new BMS lease agreements increases Chrysos’ Total Contract Value by A$149 million ($106 million) to A$705 million.

The first of BMS’ 12 PhotonAssay units is set to arrive in Montreal in the September quarter of 2023. In due course, BMS’ hub-and-spoke market expansion plan will deliver PhotonAssay technology to strategically important mining centres across the US, Canada, Central and South America, the Middle East and Europe.

Chrysos Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dirk Treasure, said: “These 10 new PhotonAssay leases signal a significant expansion of the existing relationship between Chrysos and Britannia Mining Solutions.

“We are particularly excited by BMS’ targeted approach to the roll-out of its PhotonAssay units. Its proposed regional hub model offers flexibility for large and small miners globally and complements the existing mine site and near mine site deployment strategies of Chrysos’ other customers.”

PhotonAssay, Chrysos says, delivers faster, safer and more accurate analysis of gold, silver and complementary elements by non-destructive measurement of larger and more representative samples in as little as two minutes, enabling rapid turnaround of critical operational information that drives optimisation throughout the mining value chain.

The system, originally developed at Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, provides an environmentally friendly, chemical-free, more sustainable replacement for traditional fire assay methods, significantly reducing CO2 emissions and hazardous waste.

Based in Canada, BMS’ parent company, Britannia Life Sciences, offers an integrated suite of services including analytical and microbiological testing, product development and quality assurance, plus safety and regulatory compliance.

Peter Shippen, CEO of Britannia Life Sciences, said: “Britannia is pleased to partner with Chrysos in revolutionising the global minerals analysis industry. Like Chrysos, our Mining Solutions team has an unwavering commitment to the creation of exceptional market value. The signing of these 10 new PhotonAssay lease agreements reflects the desire of both organisations to deliver unparalleled levels of customer service through faster, safer and more sustainable assaying technologies.”

MSALABS to bolster Chrysos PhotonAssay inventory on ‘exceptional demand’

MSALABS, a global provider of geochemical laboratory services for the exploration and mining sectors and a majority-owned subsidiary of Capital Limited, has expanded its global partnership with Chrysos Corp that will see it bolster its number of PhotonAssay™ units.

The partnership will see MSALABS deploy 21 Chrysos PhotonAssay™ units across the globe by 2025.

In April 2021, MSALABS announced its global partnership with Chrysos and revealed the planned deployment of six PhotonAssay units across its global network. This rollout commenced with a unit at Barrick Gold’s Bulyanhulu Gold Mine, in Tanzania, and represented the first Chrysos PhotonAssay unit deployment outside of Australia.

MSALABS has continued the rollout with units now commissioned at the Morila Gold Mine, in Mali (Firefinch), and in Val d’Or, Quebec, Canada. A fourth unit will arrive imminently in Yamoussoukro, Cote d’Ivoire, with facility preparations well advanced. A fifth unit is ready for shipment to the Kibali Gold Mine, in the DRC (Barrick Gold), with the sixth unit due to begin installation in Timmins, Canada, by the end of 2022.

The company has committed to a further 15 Chrysos PhotonAssay units that will be rolled out over 2023 and 2024. MSALABS says it is currently engaged with multiple mining companies globally, including most of the top 10, and continues to see “exceptional demand” for this revolutionary new technology.

PhotonAssay delivers multiple advantages over the slower, more hazardous fire assay process, according to MSALABS. The technology provides faster, safer, more accurate and environmentally-friendly analysis of gold, silver, copper and other elements. The process is significantly simpler than fire assay, dramatically improving the turnaround time for results and reducing the risk of human error, with the added benefit of being able to retain and retest samples. In addition, the use of X-rays avoids the high temperatures and harmful chemicals such as lead and acids involved in fire assay, making it more environmentally friendly with a lower carbon footprint.

Revenue guidance for MSALABS in 2022 remains circa-$30 million, which includes the rollout of the initial six Chrysos PhotonAssay units by year-end, with each unit generating $3-5 million, depending on use. Following the rollout of the further 15 units across 2023 and 2024, in conjunction with the expansion of the existing geochemistry business, MSALABS anticipates generating revenues in excess of $80 million/y.

Stuart Thomson, MSALABS CEO, said: “We are pleased to expand our relationship with Chrysos and to assist in the global rollout of its revolutionary technology. Over the past year, we have seen very strong demand for Chrysos PhotonAssay, and we expect this interest to continue to grow as our global mining customers not only gain confidence in its accuracy and reliability, but also benefit from the substantially improved turnaround time for results not possible with fire assay. In recent years we have grown our network significantly and now have 18 laboratories globally. Adding Chrysos PhotonAssay into our service offering is exciting for us and a key benefit for our customers.”

Futureproofing the world’s copper supply through technology use

Realising the vision of a world of clean energy brings the issue of metal supply into sharp focus, with major and sustained increases required to meet growing demands, Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Ellen Thomson* writes.

With copper, for example, there are predictions of a shortfall of 15 Mt per annum by 2034 based on the current output. Therefore, boosting the efficiency of mining operations has never been more important, and smarter technology is undoubtedly the way forward to achieve this. Real-time sampling and measurement right across the mineral processing value chain can arm miners with analytical data, enabling them to build a robust understanding of the performance of each plant and drive continuous improvement at every step of the process. This article takes a closer look at how several of these steps could be optimised, including ore grade measurement, sorting on the mill feed conveyor, particle size analysis in the grinding circuit, the addition of reagents in the flotation circuit and elemental analysis and impurity detection in the concentrate leaving the plant.

Copper miners face the challenge of satisfying the rising demand for metal, while hitting the industry’s 2050 net zero carbon target. This is likely to require significant changes in operations through processing low-grade ore more efficiently, fully exploiting existing deposits, and bringing new mines into production. Unfortunately, higher-grade ore – with a 2-3% metal concentration – has largely been depleted, and miners now often work with concentrations of just 0.5%, meaning greater quantities of ore must be processed to extract sufficient amounts of copper. Therefore, it is essential to seek fresh opportunities to improve processes across the entire mining value chain, so that the increasing demand for copper ore will be met well into the future.

Does your ore make the grade?

Enhancing mining efficiency begins as soon as raw material is extracted from the ground, and extends through the crushing process and the mill feed conveyor. It is important to accurately measure the grade of the plant feed as this will impact both the performance of the concentrator and the production costs of the final product. However, this can be challenging, as some deposits are highly heterogeneous and unpredictable. Bulk ore sensing and sorting are, therefore, crucial steps in improving the raw feed material consistency and concentrator efficiency, since they reduce the dilution of incoming feeds and redirect low or marginal grade material away from the concentrator at the first opportunity. These stages rely on highly accurate and precise analytical technologies to rapidly differentiate material grade and minimise the loss of valuable material, moving only economically viable ore further along in the process. A high spec analyser is vital to this part of the chain and enables small and lower-grade satellite deposits to be accessed more successfully, as well as increasing profits for established plants.

Cracking down on the grinding circuit

Grinding is an essential first step in mineral liberation, but there is often no clear understanding of what the target particle size should be for a given head grade. Producing finer particles liberates more metal, but also increases media and energy costs. More than 50% of the energy consumed at a mine goes into crushing and grinding, so over grinding has definite economic and environmental implications. It is crucial, therefore, for each mine to find a balance between particle size and circuit throughput that limits consumption of grinding media and energy, while still maximising metal yields.

Grinding just enough is critical – too fine means lower throughput and/or higher energy consumption; too coarse and recovery suffers

Once a target has been established, real-time analysis of particle size and head grade elemental composition – for example, by prompt gamma neutron activation analysis (PGNAA) using a cross-belt system such as the Thermo Scientific™ CB Omni™ Agile Online Elemental Analyzer – can have a significant impact on the efficiency of the grinding circuit. In addition, by standardising particle size and controlling composition through the plant feed and grinding stages, the stability in feed forward control is increased going into the next stage – the flotation circuit.

The CB Omni™ Agile Online Elemental Analyzer (Thermo Scientific) rapidly and accurately differentiates material that is at or below the cut-off grade for ore sorting, the company says

Fine-tuning flotation

Flotation is a complicated physicochemical process where reagents – such as frothers, collectors and pH modifiers – are introduced to promote separation. The flotation feed can vary in particle size and chemistry depending on how the grinding circuit is optimised, and may contain excess fines. Miners might choose to compensate by adding more reagents, which can sometimes be beneficial but can also incur greater financial and environmental costs. Therefore, it is important to tailor the dosages of the flotation reagents in response to the incoming ore grade and particle size.

Concentrating on monitoring impurities

Certain impurities compromise the value of a concentrate, but they are often overlooked. Detecting impurities in the concentrate ahead of shipping reduces the chance of rejection at the receiving site – and the subsequent financial losses – and has the potential to improve ore quality, strengthen a company’s reputation and reduce the risk of penalty charges. In fact, representative sampling throughout ore extraction to concentrate the production process should be considered, but this can be extremely challenging owing to concentrated slurries, high tonnages, long distances between sample and analysis, and the expense and complexity of tackling head constraints.

Multi-stream analysers – like the Thermo Scientific MSA 3300 Slurry XRF Analyzer – are commonly employed in the mining industry, and can seem like an excellent, cost-effective solution. However, multiple streams can reduce efficiencies and lengthen the time to results – leading to less responsive control – and so their low upfront cost should be carefully balanced with their long-term implications. Choosing high quality analytical equipment that requires minimal manual input and has a proven record of reliability could help overcome these challenges and offer a better long-term solution. For example, a dedicated online sampling and elemental analysis station, such as the AnStat-330, provides a versatile and compact solution for addressing issues related to the process control of critical streams, time to results, the distance from sampler to analyser and the requirement for a metallurgical accounting quality sample.

 

 

The MSA 3300 Slurry XRF Analyzer (Thermo Scientific) measures up to 12 streams, with full stream separation retained throughout, Thermo Fisher says
The Anstat-330 Slurry Online Sampling and Elemental Analysis Station (Thermo Scientific) comes with options for additional process functionality, including distribution and pebble screening

Future-ready mining technology

It is vital to detect and understand why mining processes may be operating sub-optimally to know how to improve them. Relevant, reliable digital information is the foundation of an efficient operation and investing in more effective and continuous analysis is a key strategy for increasing return on investment. Digital twins, for example, integrate and collect data from sensors into a cloud platform to construct a complete and fully representative digital version of the concentrator. This allows miners to model different scenarios – such as changing process parameters – without interrupting the real-world activities of the mine. They aid in decision making and help to prevent unnecessary expenditure, as well as identifying any operational bottlenecks. Mining companies could potentially achieve 20 times – with some estimates up to 40 times – return on their initial investment through implementing digital twins, and more easily establish advanced, automated process control, increasing efficiency and depopulating mines.

Digital innovations are undoubtedly going to transform the mining industry and will help to reduce resource consumption and meet future sustainability goals. Without reliable, timely feedback, process control will always be on a ‘trial and error’ basis, which is no longer sufficient if miners are to fulfil the increasing copper demand ahead of us. Thermo Fisher Scientific supports the mining industry in adopting such technologies to enable dependable, timely and, often, real-time measurements that provide the data that miners need to track metal values, all the way from exiting the mine through to concentrate shipping.

*Ellen Thomson is PGNAA & Minerals Senior Applications Specialist at Thermo Fisher Scientific

SGS completes expansion of minerals and metals testing lab in Spijkenisse

SGS, one of the world’s largest testing, inspection and certification companies, has completed the expansion of its state-of-the-art minerals and metals testing laboratory in Spijkenisse, the Netherlands, enhancing the facility’s testing capacity to support global business.

The company, back in July 2021, announced it was expanding the testing hub on a rising demand for testing services.

The facility, which includes the existing laboratory as well as the recently opened extension, can test a wide variety of minerals and metals. Among these are copper, lead, zinc, gold and silver concentrates, as well as industrial minerals, ferrous metals, intermediate products and high-purity metals.

The laboratory is ISO/IEC 17025- and ISO 9001-accredited and is an approved LME Listed Sampler and Assayer, according to SGS. It provides a range of services, including:

  • High-value umpire analysis for commercial settlement;
  • Platinum group metals (PGM) analysis;
  • Electrogravimetric analysis;
  • Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) and atomic absorption (AA) testing;
  • Titration;
  • Combustion analysis;
  • Transportable moisture limit (TML) and flow moisture point (FMP) testing; and
  • Advanced fire assay testing via the state-of-the-art fire assay department.

This facility is a “Center of Excellence” that serves SGS’s global minerals and metals clients, providing them with a consistently high-quality output, the company says. The laboratory operates in accordance with the industry’s latest best practices, as well as leading global safety and sustainability standards.

Thanks to the laboratory’s strategic location near the port of Rotterdam and its first-class capabilities, the expansion of the Spijkenisse facility offers even faster and more accurate results to SGS’s customers, the company added.

SGS to support Côte d’Ivoire mining industry with new geochemistry lab

SGS has opened a new geochemistry laboratory in Yamoussoukra, Côte d’Ivoire, as it looks to support a growing local mining industry.

Ivory Coast has huge untapped resources, with estimates that two-thirds of the country is covered in untapped mineral deposits, SGS said. Gold remains one of Ivory Coast’s most valuable mineral resources, with output rising significantly in the previous decade, from 12 t in 2011 to 25 t in 2017 and around 32.5 t in 2019.

To support the country’s growing gold mining industry, SGS has opened a new commercial laboratory in Yamoussoukro. The laboratory, equipped with atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and fire assay equipment, provides, SGS says, an extensive range of services related to sample preparation and fire assay analytical testing.

Services include:

  • Au by fire assay with AAS finishing;
  • Au by fire assay with gravimetric finishing;
  • Au by screen fire assay with AAS finishing;
  • Au in carbon by aqua-regia digestion with AAS finishing;
  • Bullion analyses with gravimetric finishing;
  • Other base metals by aqua-regia digestion with AAS finishing;
  • Au in solution by AAS;
  • Specific gravity by gravimetric finishing;
  • Bulk density with paraffin wax by displacement; and
  • Physical tests: pH.

Strategically located in central Ivory Coast, the Yamoussoukro laboratory is close to key mining exploration sites. SGS employees are on hand seven days a week, supporting discoveries for greenfield as well as brownfield projects by providing full fire assay analyses with quick turnaround times, the company said.

Aurelien Nguessan, Laboratory Manager, said: “SGS can now offer mining exploration companies in Ivory Coast complete support, going above and beyond our existing sample preparation capabilities. It’s an exciting time for the industry – and for the country as a whole.”

This new laboratory will complement the services already offered by SGS’ commercial geochemistry labs in the region, including those in Tarkwa (Ghana), Bamako (Mali) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso).

Ravenswood Gold to build custom on-site Chrysos PhotonAssay facility

Chrysos Corporation says it has reached an agreement with Ravenswood Gold for the installation of a custom-built Chrysos PhotonAssay™ facility on site at its namesake gold mine in Queensland, Australia.

Originally developed at Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, Chrysos PhotonAssay is billed as delivering faster, safer and more accurate gold analysis, and is an environmentally-friendly replacement for fire assay on-site and in the laboratory.

Gold mining has been active in the Ravenswood region since 1868. In 2020, Ravenswood Gold purchased the site and committed to a major expansion of the existing mining operation. The growth plan includes establishing large-scale modern bulk open-pit mining operations in the former Buck Reef West and Sarsfield/Nolans open pits, increasing the size of the processing plant and constructing a new tailings storage facility. This ongoing development is expected to increase gold production to over 200,000 oz/y, extend the life of the mine by 14 years and see the Ravenswood mine become the largest gold operation in Queensland by 2022, according to the company.

Chrysos Corporation Chief Executive, Dirk Treasure, said: “Chrysos is proud to be partnering with Ravenswood Gold on this ground-breaking PhotonAssay installation at the Ravenswood mine site. The adoption of PhotonAssay on site at the mine reflects Ravenswood’s proactive approach to achieving excellence through technology and we look forward to working with them as they achieve their operational and sustainability goals.”

Ravenswood Gold Chief Executive, Brett Fletcher, added: “The team at Ravenswood is excited to be partnering with Chrysos on the establishment of this high technology facility right in the heart of the mine site. For us, the significant safety and sustainability benefits combined with low cost, high efficiency and lightning turnaround times delivers all the outcomes we are driving for. Being able to assay 500 to 1,000 samples per day of our grade control drilling, metallurgical sampling and exploration drilling will support us in creating a mining and mineral processing hub we believe will be operating for decades.”

Hitting samples with high-energy X-rays, Chrysos PhotonAssay causes excitation of atomic nuclei allowing rapid and enhanced analysis of gold, silver and complementary elements in as little as two minutes, Chrysos says. Importantly, the non-destructive process allows large samples of up to 500 g to be measured and provides a “true” bulk reading independent of the chemical or physical form of the sample.

Market enthusiasm for PhotonAssay’s operational and environmental benefits has endowed Chrysos with a strong sales pipeline and multiple new contract signings heading out to 2023, representing significant and sustained growth on current deployment numbers, the company said. Just some of the recent PhotonAssay deployments include a unit at Barrick’s Bulyanhulu mine in Tanzania, an installation at the Morila gold mine in Mali and one at Kirkland Lake Gold’s Fosterville mine in Australia.

Chrysos says it anticipates further global demand for PhotonAssay over the coming years in a worldwide market with room for approximately 350 units.

New Found Gold to use Chrysos PhotonAssay method for Queensway drill core

New Found Gold says it is proceeding immediately with assaying of drill whole-core samples from its Queensway Project, in Newfoundland, Canada, using the Chrysos PhotonAssay™ method at Intertek’s facilities in Perth, Western Australia.

Novo Resources Corp, a significant shareholder of New Found, currently uses Intertek’s Chrysos PhotonAssay facilities in Perth for production and exploration samples from its Western Australia gold mining and exploration projects and is facilitating priority access for New Found to the Intertek facilities under Novo’s arrangement with Intertek.

The company is planning to send the first shipment of Queensway drill core from Gander this coming week, including intervals from recent drilling that were previously designated for conventional assay on a “rush basis”, the company said. Assay results from these samples are anticipated to be received and reported in the coming weeks.

Intertek’s assay facilities in Perth are used by a broad spectrum of gold mining and exploration companies and it operates two Chrysos PhotonAssay instruments at its Perth laboratory with a third to be installed shortly.

New Found is advancing towards an agreement with MSALABS for 20,000 assays per month at a new facility MSALABS anticipate commissioning shortly in Val d’Or, Quebec, and is also working with MSALABS towards an agreement for the installation of a Chrysos PhotonAssay unit in Gander, in Newfoundland, in 2022.

The use of the Intertek facilities in Perth will allow the company to immediately proceed with leveraging the Chrysos PhotonAssay for the assay of drill core currently being produced at Queensway. This assay work would transition to the MSALABS facility in Val d’Or, Quebec, once capacity there is available to the company.

The Chrysos PhotonAssay method is non-destructive and New Found’s QA/QC program will include fire assay/metallic screening of sample material post photon assay for comparison of the results.

Melissa Render, VP Exploration of New Found, said: “With the current large backlog of samples and resulting slow turnaround times for conventional assaying in North America, even with the additional transport time required to ship samples to Perth, we believe that proceeding with Chrysos PhotonAssay analysis at these facilities in Perth will significantly shorten our turnaround time on assays. This will provide faster receipt of critical information to our exploration team and will allow more timely disclosure of drill results to the market.

“Recognising the nuggety nature of gold mineralisation at Queensway, the use of non-destructive, Chrysos PhotonAssay method on whole-core samples will contribute significantly to optimising the accuracy of our assay results. The Chrysos PhotonAssay method is rapidly gaining industry wide acceptance. Barrick, in partnership with MSALABS, recently installed a Chrysos PhotonAssay unit at its Bulyanhulu Mine in Tanzania, and Kirkland Lake Gold recently installed a unit at its Fosterville Mine in Victoria State, Australia. We are very excited to be moving ahead and implementing the Chrysos PhotonAssay assay process for our Queensway Project and we look forward to reporting our first assay results from recent drilling in the next several weeks.”

Chrysos PhotonAssay lab up and running at Barrick’s Bulyanhulu

Barrick Gold, in partnership with MSALABS Ltd, has successfully installed a Chrysos PhotonAssay™ laboratory at its Bulyanhulu mine in Tanzania – the first in Africa and in its global operations.

This new technique, Chrysos says, delivers faster, safer and more accurate analysis of gold, silver and complementary elements by non-destructive measurement of larger and more representative samples in as little as two minutes, enabling rapid turnaround of critical operational information that drives optimisation throughout the mining value chain.

The system, originally developed at Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, provides an environmentally friendly, chemical-free, more sustainable replacement for traditional fire assay methods, significantly reducing CO2 emissions and hazardous waste, according to Barrick.

Introducing the new system to media at the mine, Barrick President and Chief Executive Mark Bristow said it was part of the group’s continuing drive to harness technological innovation in the service of operational excellence, occupational safety and environmental care.

Bulyanhulu is in northwest Tanzania and is a narrow-vein gold mine containing gold, silver and copper mineralisation in sulphides.

The unit, which is also the company’s first deployment directly to a mine site, is part of a collaboration with MSALABS, a subsidiary of Capital Ltd, which will see at least seven Chrysos PhotonAssay units installed across the globe over the next 18 months, Chrysos says.

Dirk Treasure, Chrysos Corporation Chief Executive, said: “We are confident that PhotonAssay’s faster, safer and environmentally-friendly process not only aligns with Barrick’s focus on operational excellence through technology adoption, but also reflects and enhances its global reputation as a leader in sustainable mining and exploration.”

He added: “Our ambitious plan is to deploy 80 PhotonAssay units over the next five years. At that point, with each unit capable of processing up to 480,000 samples per annum, we will be helping our customers reduce CO2 emissions by an estimated 18,000 t and decrease hazardous waste by approximately 12,000 t every year.”

The company anticipates further acceleration of demand over the coming years in a worldwide market with room for approximately 350 units.

Chrysos Corp raises A$50 million to fund PhotonAssay tech expansion drive

Australia-based Chrysos Corporation has successfully completed an equity placement, raising A$50 million ($37 million) of funds to, it says, meet accelerating demand for its PhotonAssay™ technology from miners, explorers and laboratories across the globe.

The technology is billed as being able to displace slower, more hazardous and toxic assay processes. It delivers faster, safer, more accurate and environmentally friendly analysis of gold, silver and complementary elements in as little as two minutes, according to the company.

Dirk Treasure, Chrysos Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are delighted with the support we’ve received from investors as we enter this exciting phase of our expansion strategy. Through effective planning and execution, we have built a long runway of sustainable growth and are well positioned to realise PhotonAssay’s immense potential in this attractive and progressive market.”

Chrysos says it has entered a transformative stage with the PhotonAssay technology already deployed and in-use with industry leaders, including the world’s third largest laboratory group, Intertek, geochemical laboratory services provider, MSALABS, and top-tier miners including Barrick and Kirkland Lake Gold.

The company maintains a strong sales pipeline and has contracts secured for a further nine units, which represents 150% growth on its current deployments and locking in its manufacturing capacity for the next 12 months, it said. This will bring the total number of deployed and committed PhotonAssay units to 15.

Chrysos anticipates accelerating demand over the coming years in a worldwide market with room for approximately 350 units.

Treasure added: “Our ambitious plan is to deploy 80 PhotonAssay units over the next five years. At that point, with each unit capable of processing up to 480,000 samples per annum, we will be helping our customers reduce CO2 emissions by an estimated 18,000 t and decrease hazardous waste by approximately 12,000 t every year.”

PhotonAssay units are leased to mines and analytical laboratories under long-term renewable contracts, with customers paying per sample processed. As a non-discretionary element of the mining value chain, the technology offers an attractive operating expenditure model for customers and delivers a high margin, long-life annuity revenue stream back to Chrysos.

Chrysos’ PhotonAssay technology was originally conceived at Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, which remains a significant shareholder.